1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to object and virtual environment design and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for evaluating user perception in a 3D virtual environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Advertising is ubiquitous. Typically, when a company wants to advertise their product they will either create their own advertising campaign, or hire an advertising agency to create an ad campaign. The advertising agency will generate an advertisement and, if the advertisement is approved by the company, may coordinate placement of the advertisement in the relevant media. Many types of advertising have been created over the years, including: print advertising (newspapers, magazines, brochures, and fliers); broadcast advertising (television radio and the Internet); outdoor advertising (billboards, kiosks, tradeshows and events); and covert advertising (product placement in movies and television shows). Other types of advertising, and variations of these types of advertising, may also exist or be developed over time.
Before spending large sums of money finalizing an advertisement and placing the advertisement into circulation, it may be advantageous to test the advertisement to determine its effectiveness. Particular advertisements may resonate well with particular demographics, while other advertisements may be found to be ineffective or, even worse, offensive to particular demographics. Accordingly, it is common to try to measure the effectiveness of a particular advertisement to see how the advertisement is perceived by particular groups of people. For example, the advertiser may want to know the overall impression of the advertisement, as well as more focused information such as what message the person is taking away from the advertisement, what aspect of the advertisement is being noticed by the person, whether the person is confused by the advertisement, what is attracting their attention most, and many other aspects of the advertisement.
Similar concerns may be encountered in other areas as well. For example, when a new product is to be introduced, such as a new piece of software, user interface, or web site, it may be desirable to test the usability of the product to see how it is perceived by prospective users. If a physical product is to be launched, the design of the product may be tested to determine target consumer's perception of the product design.
Unfortunately, obtaining genuine user feedback on an advertisement or product is not trivial. Many ways of attempting to track and understanding how a potential customer reacts to an ad, packaging, or new product or user interface, have been developed over the years. Unfortunately, each of the methodologies has certain drawbacks.
For example, one way to obtain user feedback is to use a focus group. A focus group is a group of people that are assembled to review the new advertisement/product and provide their feedback to the person running the focus group. Generally, a focus group is run by showing the members of the focus group a particular advertisement and then asking them for feedback about their impression of the particular advertisement. Similar methodology is used to test products, user interfaces, web site designs, etc. One problem with the use of focus groups is that the users/customers may not necessarily understand their own reactions to the advertisement/product. Accordingly, they may not be able to give accurate feedback to the person running the focus group. Additionally, the members of the focus group may modify their responses in order to gain the approval of the person running the test, or to respond in a way they think is proper and/or that will impress others in some way. This too may skew the results from the focus group.
Another way to attempt to obtain feedback is to videotape (and otherwise observe) a select group of test subjects as they are presented with the advertisement/product for the first time. This technique can be more effective than focus groups, as it isn't colored by the users' own perceptions of how they perceived something. However, it can be an expensive way of testing since the test subjects must be observed and their reactions painstakingly recorded and then analyzed. Also, it may be hard to get a statistically significant selection of the user/customer base. Finally, the test environment is typically different from the environment where the advertisement/product will be viewed and/or used, which may color the responses obtained using this method. For example, if the person being observed is aware that they are being observed, they may not act in a normal manner thus rendering the results less than perfect.
Another way to obtain feedback is to use physical sensors, such as eye tracking technology and physiological response sensors. This technique is more precise than the videotape/observing method, and can give some very subtle insight into the subconscious of the test subject. However, it requires expensive test equipment which makes it less desirable from an economic standpoint. Additionally, as with the videotaping/observing method, the test environment is typically different from that where the advertisement/product will be viewed and used, which may color the responses obtained using this method.
There are also indirect ways of determining the effectiveness of an advertisement or product. Typically, these indirect ways occur after the advertisement/product has been released and, hence, are too late in the development cycle to affect the advertisement/product. For example, changes in user purchasing behavior may be attributed to positive or negative attitudes toward the advertisement or the changed product. These indirect measurements may be used as rough feedback as an indication that people generally like the advertisement or do not like the advertisement. However, since there are many possible factors that may affect overall sales, this type of feedback is generally of lesser value than some of the other methods discussed above.
As noted, there are many ways of determining how an advertisement is or will be perceived by the relevant purchasing public. However, because of the limitations associated with these methods, and the costs involved in implementing some of the more accurate methods, it would be advantageous to provide another way to obtain user feedback.
Product design is similar to advertising, in that the design of the product, if done well, may capture users' attentions and help to sell the product. Determining which features of a product are appealing, however, encounters many of the same difficulties as advertising. Additionally, product design is extremely important because, once the design is finalized and manufacturing has begun, making changes to the product design may be very costly.